


Supernormal

by holyhael



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Aromantic Character, Aromantic Maeve, Asexual Character, Asexual Maeve, Episode: s10e05 Fan Fiction, F/F, GSA, Gen, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Kristen, Pansexual Character, Pansexual Marie, basically plotless, transgender character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2015-06-27
Packaged: 2018-04-06 11:48:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4220532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holyhael/pseuds/holyhael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maeve is not a nervous person. She’s performed in many plays and only felt the rush of adrenalin that comes with being on stage, never the flutter of butterfly wings in her stomach that her peers describe, never the shakiness they seem to have in their hands and voices.</p><p>To be fair, Maeve doesn’t feel a lot of the things her peers do. Performance anxiety, sexual attraction, romantic inclinations, religious belief…. The list goes on and on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Supernormal

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know anything about how a production is managed, but i tried to base it off of what we saw in 10.05 fan fiction (and the drama teacher is largely absent because of that).

Maeve is not a nervous person. She’s performed in many plays and only felt the rush of adrenalin that comes with being on stage, never the flutter of butterfly wings in her stomach that her peers describe, never the shakiness they seem to have in their hands and voices.

To be fair, Maeve doesn’t feel a lot of the things her peers do. Performance anxiety, sexual attraction, romantic inclinations, religious belief…. The list goes on and on.

Her parents think something might be wrong with her head. And maybe there is - Kennedy certainly thinks so, because whenever Maeve marks better than her she gets snotty and starts calling names - but this is also who Maeve is. If there is something _wrong_ with her, well, it doesn’t feel very wrong.

There are words for what she feels, even - or perhaps to phrase it better, there are words for what she doesn’t feel: aromantic, asexual.

For all her conviction and lack of needing to feel validated (or so she says), the words provide a sense of relief. And they lead her to this room.

Room 125, Ms Keen’s room. Ms Keen teaches science; Maeve’s in her first period astrology class this semester. She never realized Ms Keen also led the school’s GSA until she thought to look up if their school even had such a club. Like every other student, Maeve’s heard the rumors that Ms Keen is actually a Mr Keen, but she never really considered them. Now she’s glad she didn’t. If Maeve had ever thought about Ms Keen being anything other than the woman she presents herself as, she’d never be able to look her favorite teacher in the eye again.

The door opens with a squeal before Maeve can open it herself, letting out a student Maeve’s seen around but doesn’t know. The student smiles socially when she meets Maeve’s eyes, and Maeve reciprocates in kind. Or at least she tries to. She isn’t one to smile without reason, and this really isn’t a reason for her. Not a good enough one anyway.

There are four other students inside, all of whom Maeve knows, peripherally if not personally. Kristen and her girlfriend are seated together and holding hands, and miraculously they’re actually paying attention to the others in the group rather than each other (which they totally don’t do in class). Lacey from Maeve’s calculus class swivels around in Ms Keen’s desk chair, snapping her gum. The cheerleader who toppled out of her bases’ hands during a basket toss last year and broke three bones is currently demonstrating some mad signing skills to the others. Ms Keen watches everyone fondly from the front, but upon noticing Maeve’s arrival, she snaps right back into teacher-mode.

“Maeve. Hi.” She straightens up, having been leaning against the wall. “Did you need anything? The paper for -”

“No, I’m here for club,” Maeve says. Everybody’s eyes are on her, and now she thinks she knows what stage fright feels like. Her throat squeezes.

Ms Keen blinks, and her mouth is parted open. “Oh. Well, welcome. Take a seat.” She gestures to the many empty desks before her. “We’re just going to wait for Marie to come back before we get started.”

“All right.” Maeve pulls out the chair closest to her, which happens to be the furthest from everyone but Lacey, but before she can sit down, the door opens again, admitting the student who exited when Maeve was still outside, this time bearing gifts.

“I’m back!” she announces, holding a stack of colored paper, . Her eyes slide over to Maeve. “Oh. Hello. You joining?”

Maeve nods. From over her shoulder, Maeve sees Lacey grin wickedly.

“Splendid. We’ll get started then. I’m Marie, GSA president.”

Maeve wonders if this is where she should shake Marie’s hand, but decides maybe that would be weird and also impossible given that Marie’s holding a stack of fliers, three staplers, a super pack of markers, and five drinks from the vending machine.

“How about we do introductions first?” Ms Keen suggests. Even though everybody pretty much knows everybody, the suggestion is agreed to by all with a nod. “Marie, if you’d like to continue.”

“Okay, just a sec.” Marie strides forward first and deposits her cargo onto the front table, then she distributes the drinks. “Sorry, I don’t have anything for you, unless you’d like to share?” Marie says to Maeve, holding out her bottle of Lipton.

“I’ve got water,” Maeve says. She realizes she’s still standing, but before she can sit her heinie down, Kristen shouts out.

“Not so fast!” she says. Maeve freezes. “Come closer; we won’t bite.”

The cheerleader mutters, “Unless you ask.” Ms Keen glares at her.

Maeve thinks about sitting where she is anyway, but one look at Kristen’s open, easy smile encourages her more than her words or her come-forward gesture. She pushes the chair back in and finds one closer to the rest of the group. Kristen beams, Marie smiles, and Ms Keen looks pleased.

“Okay, so introductions!” Marie says with a clap of her hands. “Obviously I’m Marie. I’m pansexual. I’m the cofounder of this wonderful club.” Kristen, Lacey, and the cheerleader whoop and holler here, in varying degrees of enthusiasm. Marie’s smile renews itself; it’s beautiful. “I’m also in the theatre, directing this winter’s play, Romea and Juliet.” More applause ensues. Marie smiles. “Next?”

Kristen stands up, almost knocking her chair over in the process. “I’m Kristen. I’m a lesbian. I’m the star of Marie’s play, but I like musicals more than the Bard.” She shrugs and sits down, and after something occurs to her, she adds, “No disrespect!”

Next to her, her girlfriend rolls her eyes. She doesn’t bother to stand up as she introduces herself. “I’m Siobhan. Kristen drags me to every meeting.” Rather than look annoyed, Siobhan looks at Kristen fondly. “I like baking and softball.”

The cheerleader goes next. “I’m Bella. Nice to meet you.” She smirks and nods at Maeve, and Maeve nods back. Bella doesn’t say anymore; the group turns their attention on Lacey.

“Lacey here.” She waves. “Um. I’m in a long-distance relationship with a trans girl named Gilly, and I’m still trying to figure everything about me out.”

“And you know me, Maeve,” Ms Keen says. “I am a transgender individual - as far as I know I’m the first openly transgender woman who hasn’t been fired from a teaching position in this state.” The group laughs nervously. “My partner, Nicole, and I have been together for forty years. She supported me when no one else would, and we hope to one day be able to get married.” Ms Keen receives a round of applause, as uproarious as six people can pull, anyway. Ms Keen looks thrilled. “Maeve.”

“Um. I’m Maeve.” She feels everyone’s eyes burning on her; most intense of all seems to be Marie. “I just figured out I’m asexual and aromantic, so I thought I’d check out this club. Although I didn’t even know it existed until yesterday.”

Most of the club members laugh, but Siobhan is furrowing her eyebrows, looking confused. “Aromantic? I know what asexual means, but….”

“It basically means you don’t feel romantic attraction. _I_ don’t feel romantic attraction.”

There are confused looks from all around. “Romantic… attraction? What?”

Maeve sighs. This was what she was afraid of, that she’d have to give the club a vocabulary lesson rather than just hang out and have fun with people who she can connect with.

However, before her open mouth can let out words, Marie saves the day.

“Romantic attraction is like looking at a person and saying ‘ _I want to date you_.’” Marie is looking at Bella when she says the last words; Maeve wonders if that’s of any significance. “Sexual attraction is looking at a person and saying ‘ _I wanna do you_.’ And there’s also platonic attraction, which is -”

“I wanna be your friend?” Lacey interrupts.

Marie beams and nods. “Correct! There might be other kinds of attraction, but those are the Big Three. Romantic, sexual, and platonic.”

Kristen leans over dramatically, eyes wide as she looks at Maeve. “So you don’t want to date anyone? Or have sex with anyone? Ever?”

Siobhan fidgets.

Maeve shakes her head. “No.”

“Huh.” Kristen takes a few moments to comprehend this and reclines back in her chair. Siobhan looks at her feet, which are crossed at the ankles, one foot tapping anxiously.

“Well,” Ms Keen says, refocusing the group’s attention out of their own minds. “Last week we decided to work out our plans for the winter formal.” She glances briefly at Maeve. “Do you guys still want to do that, or…?”

Ugh. “Just because I’m aromantic doesn’t mean I don’t like dances. Or organizing them.” She levels a hard stare at Ms Keen; it’s probably the only time Maeve has glared at her in all the years they’ve been in acquaintance. Ms Keen at least looks apologetic.

“Of course not! Our plans almost never happen; we almost never get anything done.”

Lacey pipes up, “Last year we wanted to hold a fundraiser for AIDS research, but we never got it organized.”

“Two weeks ago we decided having a cool gay band at prom would be awesome as hell, but we need to raise big money for that, and guess what we haven’t done?” Bella smirks sardonically. Marie presses her lips together in a line and clenches her fist. “Relax, Marie. No disrespect.”

“I’ve just been super busy with the play!” Marie exclaims. “I’m doing everything. I rewrote the play, I’m directing the play, I’m promoting the play, I’m in charge of costumes.”

“Wow,” Maeve says. “Maybe you should lighten your workload.”

“That’s what I’ve been telling her,” Ms Keen says with a roll of her eyes. “But no one passes muster, do they, Marie?”

“I like things a certain way,” Marie explains, using her hands to gesture like she’s putting something in an invisible box. “Nobody seems to get that.”

“Yeah, and nobody’s as anal-retentive as you,” Lacey says.

Ms Keen glares at Lacey. Lacey starts up an argument, but Maeve doesn’t hear it; all of her attention is on Marie, who is looking increasingly put out. Now that Maeve is really seeing her, the stress lines on Marie’s face and the bags under her eyes pop out like objects in an answered ISpy challenge.

“I can help,” Maeve blurts in the middle of the escalating squabble. Lacey stops mid-sentence with quotey fingers raised. Everyone stares at Maeve again, but Maeve only looks at Marie.

“Yeah?” Marie raises an eyebrow. Is it just Maeve’s own hopefulness projected onto Marie that makes her sound hopeful, or is that genuine excitement in her voice?

Ms Keen nods. “That’s a good idea.”

“I’m in the community theatre,” Maeve says. “Or I was. I had to drop out because it conflicted with my brother’s soccer practice.” Oh, how Maeve hated her parents for crushing her Broadway dreams because they thought Ivan’s athletic extracurriculars were more important. And oh, how Maeve has missed the thrill of presenting her work - and sometimes herself - to an appreciative audience.

“Oh no.” Marie looks distraught on Maeve’s behalf; her hand even goes to her heart. “Well, it’s settled then! You _have_ to come to tomorrow’s rehearsal. We’re still working on the first act, and we should be in the middle of the second! And I have no idea what to do about props, or the annoying thing Sara does with her elbows.” Kristen, Siobhan, and Lacey nod with a sympathetic grimace. “Please?”

The entire group looks at Maeve as if she’s the answer to all their prayers. Maybe she is. She doesn’t know.

She smiles at Marie. “Okay.”

 


End file.
